


Porcupines and other prickly matters

by isamariposa



Category: The Terror (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Casual Sex, Daemon Touching, Infidelity, M/M, Unethical Medicine, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 08:28:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22847194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isamariposa/pseuds/isamariposa
Summary: Daemon AU. As the Captain recovers from his addiction, Dr. McDonald offers his medical assistance to Jopson for any… unmet needs.The Terror bingo: “withdrawal”
Relationships: Captain Francis Crozier/Thomas Jopson, Thomas Jopson/Dr Alexander McDonald
Comments: 17
Kudos: 41
Collections: The Terror Bingo (2019)





	Porcupines and other prickly matters

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, I don’t know how this happened. I was going to write a lighthearted Crozier/Jopson daemon AU and for some reason ended up with this filth.
> 
> For those not familiar with daemon lore from HDM (you’re missing out!):
> 
> 1) Daemons are a physical manifestation of the soul in the shape of a companion animal. The animal it settles into reflects most if not all of your personality. Servants and soldiers (= people who obey) usually have dog daemons. The vast majority of daemons are the opposite sex as the human.
> 
> 2) Touching someone else’s daemon is simply not done, and when it’s done it’s a VERY extreme mark of intimacy, equivalent to having sex imo. Only people deeply in love have been shown touching each other’s daemons that I recall. Touching it without someone’s permission is like molesting them. (“…it was the grossest breach of etiquette imaginable to touch another person’s daemon. Daemons might touch each other, of course, or fight; but the prohibition against human-daemon contact went so deep that even in battle no warrior would touch an enemy’s daemon.”)
> 
> 3) People find it physically painful to be apart from their daemons more than a few meters. In the most recent book, we learn that some people CAN separate a greater distance from their daemons willingly, often in times of great need, but it seems to come at a psychological cost.

* * *

At four bells, Alexander McDonald grabbed his medical bag from the sick bay and went to check on the Captain. He was not overly worried: while the patient's state had seemed alarming at first, his own thorough observations revealed Captain Crozier was none worse for the wear as the days passed, likely due to his strong constitution - it enabled him to weather through the worse of his violent withdrawal with characteristic stubbornness. 

With Bonnie perched on his left shoulder, her favourite spot, he entered the great cabin and found it empty, to his surprise: it was unlike Jopson to leave the Captain on his own. Though come to think about it, Alexander had heard some noise in the pantry on his way - Jopson likely was choosing the ingredients for the evening meal on account of the patient's lack of appetite. He walked over to the Captain's bedcabin without announcing himself, thinking nothing of it, but what he saw in there made him freeze on the spot.

Andromeda, the Captain's temperamental porcupine daemon, was curled by the foot of the bed with her quills relaxed, likely asleep. On the berth itself, Captain Crozier was lying on his side, the bottom half of his body covered by a blanket. And in his arms he held Neptune, Jopson's daemon, as tightly as a young child holds a toy to go to sleep. The large black dog alternated between nuzzling his neck affectionately and licking his face - small, quick licks with his rosy tongue that resembled kisses. It was such a private, intimate display that Alexander felt his face flushing despite all his years of medical training. In fact, he did not ever recall having witnessed anyone touching someone else's daemon, save his parents, perhaps, when he was too young to understand. He'd treated hundreds, perhaps thousands of patients, and not once had he touched their daemons, whether by accident or by design, this gross violation of the most basic decency too unthinkable to even consider.

"They've not seen us," Bonnie whispered. "We could pretend we didn't see."

They were evidently not expecting to be discovered like this - who would? It was admitting openly they were in congress with each other. In fact, Alexander would have felt infinitely less awkward if he'd walked in on them fucking - those urges of the body surprised him no longer after so long at sea, but this closeness to each other's _daemons_ , was something he'd quite frankly have preferred not to see. Well - Crozier's closeness to Jopson's daemon, in any case. That gave him pause, the space of an instant. He took Bonnie's advice and stepped back as quietly as possible, far enough to knock on the great cabin's door.

"Jopson?" he called, knowing he'd get no answer, then added, "Captain?"

He had to have been heard. By the time he made it to the bedcabin the second time, Neptune was sitting on the floor, wagging his tail and looking perfectly innocent. Captain Crozier was fussy and irritable, and Andromeda stuck out all of her quills the moment Alexander stepped in the room, but that was nothing new. 

As he sat on the chair, Bonnie climbed down from his shoulder, her little squirrel claws scratching the wooden floor when she landed on it. While Alexander made cheerful, one-sided small talk to his patient, Bonnie went to check on Andromeda, got no more than a pitiful 'leave us alone' out of her, and then stared at Neptune with open curiosity. The dog daemon, with his frank, gentle nature as open as Jopson's, looked vaguely guilty when Alexander glanced at him.

"You're rather far from Jopson, aren't you?" he said, lightly.

"We did not want to leave the Captain alone," Neptune said, not meeting his gaze. He did not seem in visible pain or distress despite the distance between them.

"Hm," Alexander said, but did not insist because the Captain was getting agitated with his questions. "I like your pulse better today, Captain," he told him. "I think the worst is behind us now."

"Zn't feel like it," Captain Crozier slurred, trying to slide back under the cover rather unsuccessfully. Alexander took pity on him and pulled it up for him.

"Try your best to sleep. I'll leave a new draught with Jopson in case you feel thirsty."

Any other patient he might have patted on the shoulder before leaving, but Andromeda was still standing at attention, with all her quills puffed out aggressively, so he decided against it. Captain Crozier was too proud to accept any comfort - from anyone but Jopson, apparently. Alexander sighed and spared one hesitant glance for Neptune as he stood.

"Tell him to come fetch it from my cabin as soon as he can."

Neptune gave a nod.

Bonnie jumped on Alexander, hanging on to the fabric of his uniform as she climbed on him until she was perched on his shoulder, and they left the bedcabin together.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


"It isn't exactly a surprise," Bonnie said. She was sitting on the table, the light of the lamp giving her red fur an orange tint. "You've heard them. Haven't you?"

Alexander looked up at her from his diary, where he was recording the day's incidents. He glanced towards the wall he shared with the Captain. He'd heard them once or twice. Very faintly, but he had. He couldn't be certain, of course, that _that_ was what they were doing. He'd pretended not to hear, though he had, in passing, worried for Jopson from a medical perspective, because the exertions must have been vigorous for him to hear him through the thick wooden wall. This was confirmation, he supposed.

"I don't know what I heard," he said. "Did Neptune seem normal to you?"

She shook her head. "He is usually friendlier. I've never seen him so quiet."

"I worry about him. And about Jopson. Do you think Neptune was there against his will?"

"No," Bonnie said. "He didn't seem distressed. Only nervous."

Captain Crozier, even when drunk out of his mind, did not strike him as the kind of man who would force himself on another or on a daemon, and least of all on account of his higher rank. But Alexander knew Jopson and Crozier had sailed together during Ross's southernmost voyage. That was time enough for a certain dynamic to develop between them - one, perhaps, where Jopson felt he could not refuse his Captain's demands, to the point of leaving his daemon so far behind and be touched so freely by the other man.

"I would not go so far from you," Alexander said, thoughtfully, and stroked Bonnie behind her ears where he knew she liked. He could not even begin to imagine how much it would pain him to leave her in another room. They'd tried, not long after she settled into a red squirrel and he was still a boy: the suffocating pain was unbearable.

"Some people can separate from their daemons," she said, and Alexander could see very plainly how much it hurt her to talk about this. "Not just Witches."

"I know," he said. "It's a rare, dangerous condition. The patient usually develops a melancholia so severe it may lead to them taking their own life if unaddressed."

"Don't you go all doctor on me," Bonnie said, bristling a little. "I read the same textbooks as you."

"All right, then, don't let us quarrel. Even so, the condition is very rare and evident to spot for a physician. I think I might have noticed by now if they were able to separate at will."

"Maybe you missed it. Maybe you're only seeing it now. No one pays any mind to Jopson, do they? He always seems so composed, and Neptune is suitably friendly. But before today, you didn't even know they were intimate with the Captain. Have you ever spoken to Jopson, truly spoken? Enquired about his health? His mood?"

Alexander sighed: as usual, Bonnie was giving a voice to his own guilt and his shortcomings as the ship's physician.

"I should have been more attentive," he admitted.

"Me too," Bonnie said, looking crestfallen. "I'm sorry."

"Ah, cheer up, lassie," Alexander said. "It couldn't be helped. Now that we know, we'll talk to him. I just need to be sure this... arrangement of theirs is agreeable with him."

Bonnie turned her little head towards the door, her ears twitching.

"Sooner than you think," she said. "Here they come now. Those are Neptune's footsteps."

Alexander shut his diary by force of habit and put away his pen. It gave his desk a tidier appearance, a remnant of medical vanity that he retained from more cheerful times. Moments later, Jopson and Neptune stepped into his cabin. Alexander turned to face them.

"Ah, Jopson. Please have a seat."

"Thank you, sir." Jopson sat on a wooden stool, and Neptune settled close to his feet, wagging his tail. "Sorry I missed your visit, I should have liked to be present."

"Oh, it's no matter," Alexander said. "He's doing a great deal better, despite what he may think."

"Isn't he?" Jopson said, proudly. He had reason to: his nursing skills had proved invaluable through this wretched episode.

Alexander exchanged a brief glance with Bonnie, who was still atop the desk, and then looked at Jopson in earnest. The steward's rosy cheeks, likely due to the cold, gave the impression of a passionate flush on his face, but he looked as calm as he ever did. He was a handsome lad, Alexander supposed, the kind of pretty boy that might make a Captain's head turn in times of torment. _The quiet ones are unpredictable,_ he thought, a nugget of wisdom acquired in his long years of practice. _Give me a loud, earnest man, and I'll know exactly how to handle him_.

"How are you, Jopson?" Alexander asked, deciding on a straightforward approach.

Jopson seemed a little puzzled. "I am well, Doctor McDonald. Thank you for asking."

"It can't be easy on you, looking after the Captain when he's so ill."

"Oh. I think nothing of it, sir. Truly. I've been looking after him for years now."

"Yes," Alexander said, very aware that Bonnie was fidgeting her little paws as nervously as he felt. Oh, damned it all, it wasn't the first conversation of the kind he'd ever had in his life. He trudged on, "Yes, I know. You've been acquainted for nearly a decade, haven't you?"

Jopson gave a slight frown, but answered, just as politely as before, "Just about, sir. We began sailing the Antarctic in 39."

"And was it then that he began touching your daemon?"

Neptune leapt to his feet with a suddenness that startled both Alexander and Bonnie. The dog daemon was usually so well-behaved, so unobtrusive, that it was easy to forget how large he was - positively feral with his bared teeth. Jopson, nevertheless, looked as calm as ever, but for the hand that darted forward and grabbed Neptune by the back of his neck to restrain him, both gentle and firm, as if he were used to such outbursts. Alexander stared at the gesture, fascinated in spite of himself. _The quiet ones are unpredictable_ , indeed. 

There was a branch of medicine, rather more philosophical than practical, that was devoted to daemon analysis to find unlikely cures for ailing patients. It had become as widespread as humoralism in the last decades. Alexander had never taken a fancy to it, being more concerned with mending bodies rather than souls, and a surgeon at sea was never so idle an occupation that he could afford to record his observations about the daemons of the crew (though he did, as a matter of fact, spend a few puzzled moments on occasion wondering how it was that Commander Fitzjames had such an exotic bird for a daemon who only spoke in a foreign language, or why Mister Hickey's spider-like daemon always looked so lifeless and never uttered a word - she? had begun limping from one leg after his brutal flogging, and never seemed to recover). As he stared at Neptune, by all accounts ready to attack, Alexander wondered if there wasn't merit, after all, in studying people's daemons much more carefully.

"It was, sir," Jopson answered at last. "But you are mistaken. He doesn't 'touch' my daemon, as you seem to imply. Neptune seeks the Captain's love out of his own will, as I do."

Finally, a glimmer of defiance in Jopson's eyes, matching his daemon's aggressive stance. Alexander made a soothing gesture.

"Ease down, lad. I am no priest, and I'm not overly keen on the Articles for these matters. My concern is only for your health."

"As I said earlier, sir, I am quite well."

Neptune stopped baring his teeth then, but he did not sit, and Jopson did not let go. Bonnie, quiet until now, hopped to Alexander's knees and tilted her head.

"Doesn't it hurt," she asked Neptune, her voice small and strangled, "to be so far from your Jopson when you stay with the Captain?"

"It hurts," Neptune said in a low growl. "But we don't mind."

"Mind that you don't strain the bond too hard, then," Alexander said. "If separation should happen, it will be irreversible. We need you at your best, Jopson. The Captain needs you. Beware of exerting yourself so hard that it may cripple your spirit."

"We are careful," Jopson said after exchanging a long glance with Neptune. He seemed to ease down a little. "We will be. You have no cause for concern, Doctor McDonald. We both know how far we may wander from each other. After so many years at sea, the safe range falls just above the size of the ship. I think you'll find that it's the same for many of the men aboard, though I'd wager few have ever ventured to test it."

"Indeed they haven't. I have not, as a matter of fact. We do not all share your courage or your... devotion."

Jopson clenched his jaw. "Will you be informing the other officers about your discovery, as is your duty?"

"My duty, just like yours, is to see the Captain back on his feet with as little delay as possible. If there is a rogue panserbjørn out there, it needs to happen sooner rather than later. Let us see him through his withdrawal, you and I," he said, and reached forward to pat the other man's free hand. "I see no need to trouble the other officers with idle gossip."

Jopson held his gaze for a long moment - keenly, shrewdly almost, as if studying him. He let go of Neptune, at last. The daemon sat back and stared up at them, panting with his tongue out.

"He doesn't bugger me, you know," the steward said with shocking candour as his cheeks grew ruddier. "He is too honourable for that, though the Lord knows I've tried to sway him to do it. I think he sees it as a line not to ever cross, a disgrace too great to add on to his vices." Jopson shook his head with a queer little smile. "You see, his heart is just as his daemon: full of quills, painful to cherish, nearly impossible to hold. Yet [Andromeda makes the sweetest noises](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZaRTAoGelQ) when she lets me pet her. He is starved for love, and at least we can give him that in droves, Neptune and I, along with whatever physical solace his morals will allow me to give him."

Physical solace. That was a great deal more than Alexander ever wished to know about the sexual mores of Captain Crozier. Bonnie hid her face in the folds of his uniform, embarrassed, but he appreciated the frankness.

"Well," he said with medical cheer. "Carry on, I suppose. You're doing a fine job as far as I can tell."

Jopson was still staring at him, his fair face more open now that he had made him his confidant. Alexander scolded himself inwardly for not having breached the subject with more tact, to put him at ease from the start instead of antagonising him. At least he now knew about Jopson's hidden temper, seldom roused but fierce nevertheless.

"May I suggest you be more discreet in your affections? This is a trying time for the Captain, as we both know, but had any other than me walked into the great cabin..."

"No one would dare," Jopson said, indignantly.

"Not if you were there, certainly. But some men are little more than unruly children when left to their own devices." His thoughts turned to Hickey and his lame spider-daemon. "Don't let your good nature blind you to the mischief of others."

"Never, sir," Jopson said with a disquieting smirk. "But I will take heed, and be more vigilant than ever. Won't we, Neptune?"

The black dog gave a hearty nod. Satisfied, and frankly quite done with the conversation, Alexander turned around to get the draught he'd promised, retrieved from the sick bay earlier. He inspected the label to ascertain it was the right one, and handed it to Jopson.

"Mix two drops with a glass of water as you've done so far and give him only one sip when he requests it. Go back to him without delay. He'll be missing you, I'd wager. Both of you." Neptune wagged his tail, and Alexander smiled at this before meeting Jopson's gaze again. "But please promise to confide in me again should anything go awry between you two. You are his strength now, but not at the cost of your own welfare. Remember that."

Bonnie slid down to stand before Neptune, looking up at him. The dog bent his head and she pressed their noses together in a friendly gesture. She always made these conversations easier, showing affection when masculine propriety forbade it.

"I will, sir," Jopson said, and rose from his seat.

Neptune wagged his tail harder when he met his gaze. Alexander looked away, a little unsettled by it.

"I wish we hadn't talked to them," Bonnie said when they'd gone, sounding decidedly grumpy, and refused to explain why when he asked her.

* * *

  
  


_He doesn't bugger me, you know._

The damned little sentence echoed in Alexander's mind at the most inopportune times. He shook his head every time, swatting it away like a bothersome fly, but it returned over and over - very distractingly.

"Oh, fine," Bonnie said, still moody, when he sighed for the umpteenth time that day. He was attempting to organise the potions of the sick bay cabinet and had made three mistakes in a row. "Let's talk about it, if you won't stop wondering."

"I don't want to talk about it," Alexander said, lightly. "Let them be. It's none of our business."

"Then why won't you stop thinking about it?"

"Idle curiosity, I suppose. No one is pressingly ill but the Captain, and Goodsir is looking after Blanky. I have nothing else to think of." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Why won't he bugger him, you think?"

"How should I know?"

"But Jopson clearly wants him to. You'd have to be made out of stone to resist an invitation like that."

Bonnie groaned. "Oh, I knew it! You want to bugger him yourself."

Alexander let out a short laugh. "Not quite! I just worry about the lad."

"Your medical concern is very touching, I'm sure."

"Look, the happier he is, the quicker the Captain will be back on his feet, won't he?"

"I don't think the Captain is in any state to _perform_ at present."

"A-ha. And that's where _I_ come in," Alexander said, just to annoy Bonnie. It worked: she let out a disgusted huff. "Come on, lassie. He wouldn't want me to. He's in love with Crozier, he won't want to have a romp with a stranger."

"I can't believe how naive you are sometimes," Bonnie said. "Remember Neptune's temper. Jopson is not all he seems to be."

Alexander fell silent, troubled by the thought. She was right, of course. He hated when she was right. He thought of the way Jopson had looked at him when saying that blasted little sentence, candid, wide-eyed almost, like a young lass confiding in her trusted physician. Was it feigned, deliberate? Designed to unsettle him? He disliked the notion.

"Well," he declared, "I am not going to do it."

"Then stop thinking about it and stop tormenting me with it."

"I think you're thinking about it too or you would not be such a pain about it," Alexander said, a little irritated, and turned away from her. 

They didn't speak the rest of the evening, not even as they made their way to the great cabin for a visit to the Captain. Bonnie trotted behind him quietly, refusing his shoulder. Alexander rapped his knuckles against the sliding door before entering, determined not to interrupt anything intimate this time.

"Jopson?" he called from outside.

"In here, Doctor McDonald."

For all his troubles, he couldn't avoid the scene: Jopson was crouching close to the bedcabin, petting Andromeda who had finally ventured out. The otherwise temperamental porcupine was purring like a happy kitten into the steward's touch. He'd never known porcupines could make sounds like that. It was obscenely fascinating, and Alexander stayed frozen in place again, unable to tear his gaze from them. But Andromeda bristled when she saw him standing there, her quills sticking out so fast Jopson had to pull his hand back.

"Easy, my girl," Jopson cooed at her. "The doctor is a friend. Aren't you, doctor?"

"Oh, the scoundrel," Bonnie whispered into Alexander's ear, finally breaking her sulking. He hadn't even realised that she'd climbed on his shoulder. "He did that on purpose."

"Careful with those quills," he said, lightly, and chose to ignore both Jopson and Andromeda as he stepped into the bedcabin.

Neptune was not, mercifully, up on the Captain's berth, but a few stray black hairs on the linen told Alexander that was where he'd been moments before. Jopson's daemon had more decency than his human, it seemed. Alexander clenched his jaw, trying not to mind how Bonnie was digging her claws into his shoulder to express her discomfort. It was easy to do, once he threw himself into work. He examined the patient with his usual good mood: he took the Captain's pulse and found no fever or any other signs of illness in his tired eyes. Crozier let him handle him with unusual meekness, and would not meet his gaze.

"Jolly good, Captain," he said. "If you keep this up, you should be back on your feet before the end of the week."

Crozier answered nothing.

"We'll work on your cheer next," Alexander quipped, knowing it was a futile endeavour. 

Jopson was obstructing the bedcabin door and made no move to step to the side to let him pass. Alexander chose to ignore this too, though Bonnie clawed at him harder when he had to brush against the steward to get out through the narrow door. 

"And you, lad?" he told him, trying to mask his irritation. "Still well?"

"All's well, doctor," Jopson answered, the very image of politeness. "The same as I was yesterday."

"Good," he said, and then fired, impulsively, "Come see me later if you are in need of anything."

He didn't dare to glance back at Crozier to see if he'd heard, and made a hasty retreat.

"Why did you tell him that?" Bonnie whimpered when they were out of earshot. "Now he'll come."

"I thought that's what we wanted," Alexander said, dryly, and she didn't argue against that.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


He thought, at first, that it might be one of the men feeling ill - it was so late, and he'd given up on Jopson showing up. The knock on the door of his cabin had the firmness of one who came to see him with a purpose, so he expected Goodsir with bad news. And yet there was the steward standing outside his door, looking perfectly ordinary but for the excited wagging of Neptune's tail. Alexander let him inside without a word and shut the door carefully, after checking that no one was in the officer's mess to see this. Bonnie had been cozying up on the berth, but she now stood, awake and alert, atop the linen. 

"I was getting ready for bed," he said, uselessly, as he made a vague gesture to explain his state of undress: he still had his trousers on, but his chemise was untucked.

"Of course, sir," Jopson said. "The hour grows very late. I regret not being able to come earlier. He was restless and refused to sleep."

Alexander frowned. "He wasn't ill, I hope?"

"No, Doctor McDonald. Just fussy."

He wondered with a rush of guilt for his patient whether said fuss had not something to do with this rendez-vous. He avoided Bonnie's reproachful gaze as he sat at his desk and gestured for Jopson to come closer, and to sit.

"What can I do for you, Jopson?"

"Oh," Jopson said. He sounded puzzled. Neptune stopped wagging his tail.

"I did say you could come if you needed anything," Alexander teased, feigning surprise, because he knew Bonnie would want him to make the other man spell it all out. "Well, what is it?"

Jopson pursed his lips in a way that made it clear he would not make this easy.

"I thought we had an understanding," he said, blandly.

"Did we? About what? I don't seem to recall."

Here the steward hesitated: answering in earnest would, of course, make him abandon all propriety. He flushed and stayed silent. Neptune let out a little whimper. Now atop the desk, Bonnie turned away so that her laughter would not be seen, but Alexander took pity on them.

"Is there something you need presently, Mister Jopson?" he asked in the gentle yet down-to-earth tone that prompted most confessions from his coyer patients.

"There is, sir," Jopson said. He exchanged a glance with Neptune, then took a deep breath. "As you remarked yesterday, it's been nearly a decade of my acquaintance with Captain Crozier. I love him dearly, as I told you, but it sometimes becomes... wearying for a man to forgo certain... activities."

"I can imagine," Alexander said with an encouraging nod, enjoying this far more than he'd expected while somehow maintaining a concerned tone. He felt Bonnie jumping on his shoulder, and he could sense her feverish interest matching his impishness. "What are your symptoms?" When Jopson did not reply, he prompted, "Difficulty sleeping, maybe?"

"Yes, sir."

"Restless sleep when you do sleep? Restlessness during the day, too?" Jopson nodded eagerly, leaning a little closer, and licked his lips. "Nightly emissions, tumefaction in the mornings?" When all he got was a blank stare in reply, Alexander elaborated, unable to help a smirk, "Your prick, Jopson. Is it swollen when you rouse in the mornings?"

"Oh. Yes, sir. That is to say - it always is, rather, unless the Captain is in a wanton mood." Jopson's filthy little smirk told him all he needed to know.

"But not wanton enough to your liking."

"Alas, sir." Jopson's lips trembled in a nervous smile, but Neptune's eyes were half-closed. Watching them carefully.

Alexander leaned back with an affable gesture, just as he noticed his trousers were getting a bit tighter. "Don't you worry, Jopson. Your predicament can be easily resolved, but I must address it sooner rather than later. We don't want you to develop a case of hysteria in these trying times."

"I was hoping you'd address it tonight, doctor," Jopson said, and his voice had a most interesting edge to it - with just a dash of depravity under the polite tone.

"Of course," Alexander said, as clinically as he could manage, as if this were a common occurrence when in truth it had been many years since anything remotely of the sort had happened to him. "We'll begin at once. Now, unfasten your trousers and pull down your drawers while I prepare. Don't fret: rest assured I've seen everything already, hundreds of times."

"I'm sure you have," Jopson said, under his breath.

Alexander turned around to look inside his trunk for a suitable lubricant for the task at hand, with the sound of rumpled clothing behind his back. He had to rummage a little, as he'd been remiss about keeping it in order in the past week, but soon found a small oil bottle that would do the job. The greasy liquid was usually reserved for soothing skin when it became dry due to adverse weather. He also grabbed a piece of wood similar to the one they'd used for Blanky's amputation: while he had no intention of being so violent that it would cause Jopson unbearable pain, he did share a wall with the Captain, and Crozier struck him as particularly vindicative. He was in no hurry to find out what a jealous Captain was capable of doing if he found out his favourite had been so misused. This felt a very calculating move, and it shamed him. It shamed him, and made him harden.

Alexander met Bonnie's glance then. He expected her to look reproachful, perhaps disgusted, but there was only eagerness in her keen little eyes - reflecting his own. Her fur was smooth, as it was when she was trying to make herself desirable. He bent down a little, enough that they could press their heads together - daemon and human. 

"Don't let him touch me," Bonnie whispered, and he knew she did not mean Neptune, but Jopson.

"No, my lassie," he told her, just as quietly. "It's not that kind of transaction."

"I know," she said. "But I don't trust him."

"He'll be too preoccupied to do any of that. But stay far from us just in case."

Neptune was watching them when he turned around - Alexander noticed him first, rather than Jopson naked from the waist down. The dog was panting, and his eyes were fixed on Bonnie. He felt a pang of guilt, because Jopson's daemon was so much larger than his own, and hoped she'd fare well. He would not look at them, it would be too ghastly.

He then focused on the man bared before him: Jopson had turned away and was facing the wall with his trousers and drawers around his ankles. His buttocks, pronounced and fleshy, were a little tense, but otherwise very fine to look at. Alexander knew Crozier was half mad, but refusing this pleasure was the pinnacle of eccentricity. He gave himself a quick, appreciative rub over his trousers and undid the top button for quicker access if he so needed it later. Strictly speaking, he should not have _any_ need for access: his fingers ought to be enough, but this kind of situation was not described in any textbooks to his knowledge, and buggering a patient surely strained the limits of his profession. He found with a chill he was rather willing to test said limits if the occasion arose.

When he offered the wooden piece for him to bite on, Jopson met his gaze, with evident surprise.

"Just in case you feel the need to become loud," Alexander said, far calmer than he felt. "We'd best avoid any ruction, eh?"

Jopson didn't answer. He stared at the wooden piece, and for a moment Alexander thought he'd call it all off. But the steward clenched his jaw and took the mouthpiece between his teeth. He faced the wall again.

"Now you spit that out and be sure to tell me if you're in too much pain, you hear me?" Alexander placed a hand on Jopson's hip and patted it in what he hoped was a calming gesture. The skin was warm under his touch, and he let his hand linger on it. "Bend over and rest your hands on the bed, please."

When Jopson bent forward, he moved the hand that was on the hip until it rested on the left arsecheek and gave it a squeeze. It was not soft - a testament to the long hours Jopson had to stand at attention to serve the Captain, but there was just enough plumpness over the muscle to be very pleasant to the touch. Alexander stroked him slowly as if comforting him, wanting to put the steward more at ease before he began. His own prick began swelling in earnest, something he'd have never allowed with a true patient - but Jopson wasn't one, or at least, he had not come here, with lust in his eyes, with the intent of being one.

The oil was thick and viscous on his fingers when he unfastened the bottle. He coated his index and middle fingers generously, determined for this to be as pleasant as possible for Jopson, and not at all painful save for the very natural initial discomfort. 

"Ready, Mister Jopson?" he asked.

Jopson gave a nod, and Alexander slipped his lubricated fingers between those firm arsecheeks. He was tight, far tighter than he'd expected. The tense, puckered up sphincter resisted him at first, then Jopson let out a long sigh and pressed down against him, allowing him to breach him with only one finger.

"I say, how long has it been?" he asked with some surprise. Jopson made a sound against the gag that resembled 'too long', and Alexander took him at his word. "We'll have you feeling better in no time," he muttered.

He wriggled his finger in and out with stubborn insistence, until he felt him loosen up enough to be able to slip a second finger. Jopson let out a soft moan, muffled by the wooden piece. Encouraged, and decidedly hard by now, Alexander started fingering him with more ease then, his hand making a most distracting slick sound every time he slid his fingers out, only to slip them back in.

"That's a good lad, yes," he said, soothingly, as he stroked inside him when he found the prostate. Jopson moaned harder. The gag had been a good idea.

He was burning to touch himself in some way, but he was holding Jopson in place with his free hand to keep him down against the bed - though it was likely unnecessary: the other man was evidently enjoying this too much to consider moving away. Alexander let go of him briefly, just enough to free his prick from the tight confines of his trousers, but he did not slow his vigorous ministrations with his fingers. He was so hard his prick stood stiff and upright angled towards his belly, and he stepped close enough to Jopson to be able to press it against his hip - savouring the feeling of the soft skin against his warm, sensitive cock. He saw the fingers of Jopson's right hand spreading wide with surprise at the feeling of the new stiffness against him.

Panting, Alexander withdrew his fingers out of Jopson, bending down to examine his handiwork. The otherwise tight orifice was significantly extended after his thorough handling. Coating himself with the oil abundantly, he stepped between Jopson's legs, forcing them spread a little more. After seeing so many penises through medical school and his career, he had never thought of his prick as particularly large or voluminous, but it was still a marked upgrade from the girth of his two fingers together. His tip, red and dripping, pressed against Jopson with some difficulty, and he let out a raspy, throaty groan before pushing it in.

"Hnngh," Jopson said, choking against the gag.

The snug fit around his prick almost shocked him into finishing much earlier than he'd planned - it had been too long for him too. Alexander let out a few breaths to calm himself before he started sliding in more. Jopson gave another low moan. He could hear, behind him, that their daemons were engaged in some sort of altercation of their own, but he refused to turn his head to look at them, so engrossed he was with the progress of his prick as it slid all the way inside Jopson. He gave small, insistent little pushes of his hips, each accompanied by a gargled sound from Jopson, until he was buried deep within him down to the base of his cock. For all that he'd worried about noise, Alexander was doing a rather poor job at keeping quiet: his own ragged breaths filled the the cabin, obscenely so.

Jopson turned his head then and met his gaze. He opened his mouth with deliberate slowness, letting the wooden gag fall off on the berth. Alexander's heart shrank at the gesture, supposing he'd be requested to stop just then, the physical impossibility of it staggering - but he'd promised, and he'd have to comply.

Yet Jopson said, "Please, doctor," so huskily, so starved for more that it nearly made him spill just then.

"We've got to be quiet," Alexander reminded him, mad with want.

He slid his arm around Jopson's lower torso to keep him in place while he pressed himself more against him, bent over him like a hound mounts a bitch. His other hand he placed on Jopson's mouth to keep him silent. He was tall enough to keep his forehead down against Jopson's neck, where he hoped his own panting would be muffled. He pulled his hips back, just slightly, just enough to slide out but an inch, and then he thrust back into him with some force. He felt Jopson's cry against his hand, the warmth of it going straight to his prick. 

"You're doing so good," he whispered to him, pressing inside him more even as he soothed him. "So good. Be brave now."

He started thrusting in and out of Jopson with no true rhythm on account of his own frenzy, alternating shallow pushes with deeper, harder ones. How tight he felt, even now, barely able to fit him in. He knew he was stroking the prostate every time he slid in, so he buggered him most thoroughly, fascinated with the way the steward squirmed against his hand, and with the way his fists opened and closed with each of his thrusts, like gestured exclamations punctuating his zeal.

The tightness around his prick became unbearable when Jopson clenched down on him, and an instant later he felt the slick warmth of his seed on his arm. Alexander reached for Jopson's cock at once, jerking him firmly to milk him through the spams of his ejaculation. He forbade himself to let himself go until he was sure the other man was done, tugging the foreskin gently, up and down the shaft, until the squirting stopped. Only then did he give a few hard thrusts of his hips and finally, finally spent himself deep inside him with a muted gasp.

He pulled out as soon as he recovered, which could have been minutes or hours, he did not know. He heard Jopson hiss as he slipped out of him. While he worked on catching his breath, he stared down at the aftermath of it all: Jopson's orifice, for all that it was tight when they began, was now stretched and gaping, and a mix of his seed and oil was seeping down the edge of it. Satisfied, Alexander pulled his trousers up and staggered to the washstand to clean both his hands and his prick. He spared a glance at the daemons, and wasn't surprised to find Bonnie perched on Neptune's head, nibbling softly on his left ear. Alexander smiled at her.

"Come along, Mister Jopson," he said, gesturing towards the towel. "Clean yourself with this cloth."

Now back at his desk, he paid no mind to him through his ablutions, more interested in cuddling Bonnie in his arms with the contentment of a man well spent. Eager as if after a long absence, she pressed her small muzzle to his chest, apparently having enjoyed the experience as much as he had. Neptune trotted closer, but Alexander moved his foot out of the way to avoid any contact. The daemon did not insist.

"Now that we've rid you of those built-up fluids I expect you'll feel much better," he told Jopson when he saw him dressed with the corner of his eye.

"It was a very thorough remedy, sir. Thank you."

"Anytime," Alexander said without thinking, and when he realised the implications of his reply he let out a short laugh. "That is to say, I hope the Captain will soon feel well enough to attend to you himself."

"I wait on him, not he on me," Jopson said with a hint of upset in his voice. Neptune, who had made his way back to him, pressed against his thigh. Alexander felt a wave of sympathy for the steward.

"Take care not to be too selfless in your affections. If you truly do have an understanding with him, I'm sure he'd be chagrined to realise you feel so neglected that you had to resort to this... medical intervention."

But Jopson was wearing his most stubborn mask once again. "Not neglected, sir. Just a little afflicted. I wish you a good night."

He gestured towards Neptune, bidding him to follow him as he stepped out of the cabin. Jopson's gait was a little stiff, which filled him with regret. Had he gone too hard at it? He'd thought he'd been careful. Alexander avoided the daemon's gaze, and waited until the sound of their footsteps was far enough to let out a broken sigh.

"Should we tell Goodsir about our unorthodox remedy for Jopson's condition?" Bonnie asked, mischief dancing in her eyes. "In case he needs it again in the future."

"Don't tease, lassie. I feel even worse for him now."

Bonnie nibbled on his arm. "You said it wasn't our business."

"Well, we've made it our business now, haven't we?" he said, wistfully. "I'm thinking Crozier knows his own temperament better than we give him credit for. A man with such obsessive passions is in constant danger of falling prey to a new one. He must know, deep down, that if he gives in but once and buggers Jopson he would never be able to stop, forever unsated, and might end up mistreating him."

"Not you, though," Bonnie said, yet it sounded like a question. She looked concerned.

"I have better sense than that," Alexander said, and smiled. "Though it was... memorable, I'll admit. Good God, how tight he was."

She groaned. "You'd do better to forget it."

"Maybe so. But I know my place, despite what you may think. I'm not going to risk drawing the ire of such a choleric man, in such closed quarters, just to scratch a base itch."

"And yet you did."

"Just once," he argued, but Bonnie did not look convinced. "Oh, bother, stop lecturing, would you? I'm all spent, and I want to sleep."

"Yes, let's," she said, giving in with a sigh as she climbed on the berth.

In bed, however, he tossed and turned uneasily, and hoped to God Crozier had not heard.

  
  


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**Author's Note:**

> talk to me about daemons in this fandom pls


End file.
